EducationM.A., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, SociologyPh.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, SociologyPostdoctoral Fellowship in Social Relations, Johns Hopkins University

Teaching/ResearchKatherine Meyer's research focuses on social change amid precipitating events that rapidly accelerate the course of change, such as the Gulf War, the 1980s farm crisis in the United States, Vatican Council II in the Catholic Church, and cycles of repression and dissent. With macro-level events like these as background, she studies processes and outcomes in three main areas: political participation and mobilization, restructured power and authority relationships, and inequality.

In each area, the analyses center on gender, religious beliefs and practices, structured inequalities, and the role of organized groups. This research contributes to the following sub-fields in sociology: social change, political sociology, religion, gender, and rural sociology. The projects that are her focus now investigate democratization and change, cycles of conflict in the Middle East, and restrictions on religious practices and beliefs in the context of precipitated, rapid social change.

Meyer is program director of social and economic sciences at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C.